Indeed, that is something that I am working on now. I still have a hard time being in a good mood arround people who have really self-limiting thoughts and feel that life is a huge burden. It´s like I almost feel guilty for being happy. But I understand that it serves no purpose to restrict myself when it comes to that because what would be the point of it? One can only lead by example and if people see a guy that is enjoying life, going with the flow and getting what he desires that´s a much higher level of awareness than to decide to suffer and complain about life too.

@Enlightened2B

Funny, isn´t it? Things are so different for everyone and yet they are the same!

@DavidB

Oh, you better believe that there´s more of it coming!

"Happiness / Something in my own place / I'm standing naked / Smiling, I feel no disgrace / With who I am/ I´m a lucky man...with fire in my hands"
(The Verve - Lucky Man)

Yeah, but it is also kind of sad that complaining and pessimism is the default-state for most people today which in turn means that they don´t even recognize genuine joy and inner peace anymore.

Actually, that´s what I was thinking about today because I´m so grateful to have discovered Tolle and a lot of other teachers that helped me to become the person that I am now but there are just so many people suffering in our day and age that never learn about spirituality and the power of now. I mean I understand that from a universal perspective that let´s say a person that is suffering until their death is also just an expression of source and life but I´m still struggling not to feel that it is unfair that some people discover spirituality and some have to live lives of quiet desperation(;) and can never catch a break. I have deep empathy for such people because until I discovered TPON I was one of them, suffering in a deep hole of despair, self-hatred and depression. I mean what if I hadn´t discovered Tolle and other teachers? Would I even still be alive? Would I have gotten to a point where I transcended my ego like Tolle did, out of sheer despair?

I´m not sure how to think about this. I just see so many people that are unhappy, depressed or stuck in life and I get the feeling that most of them will live like that for the rest of their life. On the other hand, I have to say that it makes me more grateful for my experience now and I am more happy to just to be me. It feels good to be me these days. I wouldn´t really want to swap places with anyone, even if I could. I guess that´s self-love?

I am curious about how you all think of this idea that some people are guided towards their spiritual path while others will probably never be anywhere near it.

"Happiness / Something in my own place / I'm standing naked / Smiling, I feel no disgrace / With who I am/ I´m a lucky man...with fire in my hands"
(The Verve - Lucky Man)

Ultimately, the spiritual path is just a calling for a greater sense of alignment with our true nature. And finding that alignment is seeing through beliefs which block it and learning to use emotions and feelings as guides. When beliefs are so ingrained and so tight, it's so difficult to see the light that was always there and in turn, people suffer. But then again, there are countless people who are incredibly happy with their lives who are not on any perceived spiritual path even if their lives are what some "spiritual" people might deem as "un spiritual". It's all games we play with ourselves. Anyone is free to live any life they choose and that includes suffering. Although, suffering is not a choice, for as long as we believe we are anything other than the Light itself.

Consider a different perspective though. Consider that all suffering, is a necessary aspect of this contrast that we come to experience in order to gain greater clarity on what we want and do not want. "Before" we come here, we don't see it as suffering, but merely as "an experience of the opposite". You see, in the light, all experience is considered the same. There is no positive or negative. The experience in human form of negativity, anguish, suffering, despair, illness, is ALL a sign that we are out of alignment with our true nature. Human life is an exploration of creation. Alignment is our way of knowing when we are vibrationally BEING what we are or if our vibration is out of match with what we are, through limiting beliefs. Wants/not wants are not always popular terms in the spiritual community because of the overly mis understood notion of "no person hood".

My take is that every perceived negative experience is ALWAYS a byproduct of this reflection based universe of contrast where contrast is our tool in order to create something we so choose to desire. We're all here because there was a passion or desire that we wanted to explore in the physical life, even if that desire was simply to explore what it was like.....to be human or something like exploring a very deep spiritual path....or....something unique and completely unrelated. Realizing our infinity and divinity is the first step towards creating from a place of Love. You can't create without the experience of the opposite. So, even the people we see who are suffering greatly, are doing so on their own path. We can do our best to help embrace these people with love and compassion without imposing our own spiritual ideas on to them. You can lead a horse to water, but can't force it to drink.

Consider that there are people on this planet who are messengers such as Eckhart Tolle who have intentionally incarnated here for the purpose of waking up humanity and helping them along their path. Many of us get so caught up with our personas, our masks, our stories, the role we are acting out on this grand play, that we forget who we truly are and awakening becomes a very foreign notion and that is to be expected in the larger picture, which is why there are people who are here to help wake us up.

GermanEnlightenment wrote:I am curious about how you all think of this idea that some people are guided towards their spiritual path while others will probably never be anywhere near it.

We are all being guided toward our spiritual path all the time, it's just that some of us recognize it, and some of us don't. Just as an extreme example, someone that might be sociopathic and/or narcissistic, will most likely never be able to realize that there is within all us a deeper spiritual dimension. They simply lack any ability to create any depth, in themselves and with others. Why are some people like this? I really don't know. I wish I knew.

Human existence is about dealing with loss, vulnerability, limitation, and uncertainty. Some of us will recognize this as an opportunity for growth, wisdom, humility, compassion, and understanding. Others see this as a threat, something to be beaten, to fight. One path leads to peace and contentment and the other leads to misery and self destruction.

But the good news is, that if we become miserable enough, or self destruct enough, this can be a doorway into awareness. We can realize that we are none of the things we imagine ourselves to be, and then let go.

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” ― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Yeah, I can´t remember where it was but somewhere I read the idea of a "soul-contract", meaning that before coming into this physical life in this particular body, different souls make an agreement with each other to have certain experiences together. Let´s take an extreme example, a father and daughter-relationship in which the child is mistreated and sexually abused and therefore learns that no man can´t be trusted and that they only want her body. So she made that experience and is probably wallowing in insecurities, guilt, shame and isolation from the rest of the every world during her teenage years and youg adult life. But her life-stream is calling her back into wholeness and if she can find her path back to herself she can feel whole again. In her case it would probably mean re-learning trust, releasing shame and anger, building healthy relationships etc., especially with men.
So from a universal perspective her soul maybe wanted to experience what isolation and consequent reunification with other souls would feel like through her own unique perspective. So, from that angle there is no good and bad, and it´s just an experience that this particular soul has. The victor (the father) was needed to create this victim-role (daughter) for all that events to play out.
Of course, from a personal perspective, this is an incredibly painful experience that can drive people into killing themselves or live a life full of fear, hatred and shame.

So yeah, I read your reponses but I´m still thinking that it is unfair that some people can be either unconsciously happy or consciously happy while some might never get a chance to glimpse more than a bit of awareness until they are dying on their deathbed. From a universal perspective yeah, these are just experiences but living a painful life day in and out from a human perspective still strikes me as, I guess, strange and kind of cynical. I don´t know, maybe there isn´t even an answer to this. To me, things are not black and white anymore, it´s almost like I am interested in other people´s opinion and I value them but at the same time I also know that there isn´t an absolute answer to anything in this world. It´s a kind of openness that feels really good to me.
I guess this is another topic but when I walk through my daily life and see people and myself making judgments about something or someone, I mostly can´t help but smile about it. Because although I come to a certain conclusion of something or someone, I still see it as just a perspective and not a fact. It´s funny to me now that we would like to make a judgement about a person, maybe describing two or three attributes about them that we don´t like, thinking that we now somehow evaluated their worth. It´s totally ridiculous to me now.

"Happiness / Something in my own place / I'm standing naked / Smiling, I feel no disgrace / With who I am/ I´m a lucky man...with fire in my hands"
(The Verve - Lucky Man)

At this moment, there are thousands of young girls and women being taken and forced into sex slavery. This is mostly occurring in Islamic states such as ISIS, but it also happens elsewhere in varying degrees. Some of these women become pregnant to their rapists, often being raped multiple times a day by different men. Some manage to escape and are then treated as outcasts in the same communities from which they were stolen.

It makes me wonder, why do people do these things to each? Why does a young woman need to go through such trauma, and why does a child need to be born into a world to a traumatized mother, a rapists, and a culture that encourages it?

I don't know, it all seems so senseless. But I'm just a little human with a tiny brain that can't possibly understand the big picture, as to why the universe behaves the way it does.

It reminds me though of one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, "Errand Of Mercy".

If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do.

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” ― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I was kidding David
If you scan and you are "Great", "Marvelous", and "Fantastic" go with it!!

Some of that stuff though came out of the 'positive thinking movement, in the fake it til you make it category, which is where the tongue in cheek 'slap down' came from. It made me consider the question more sincerely maybe.
It's also interesting to gauge if the person asking is being sincere too - sometimes you can not answer, just smile, and they don't even notice. Funny ole world we live in.

What I realized today was how connected I feel to nature now. Simply walking through these beautiful woods, seeing lakes in their stillness and animals in their natural habitat fills me with a lot of joy. It seems like I always wanted to be closer to nature because I always took walks through the woods even in my teenage years but before my "enlightenment" I was so numb to it that I couldn´t appreciate what was right in front of me. On some level it moved me but now it feels like coming home every time.
And this makes sense. Trees, lakes, animals- these are all still and aware beings that simply go with the flow of life. No wonder that I feel more drawn to them now. I also have a different relationship with our cat now. I always liked cats but now I want to hug it every time I see it and appreciate it as the beautiful being that it is.

"Happiness / Something in my own place / I'm standing naked / Smiling, I feel no disgrace / With who I am/ I´m a lucky man...with fire in my hands"
(The Verve - Lucky Man)

.
-- Our National Parks , 1901, page 56.Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
- My First Summer in the Sierra , 1911, page 110.

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
- Muir quoted by Samuel Hall Young in Alaska Days with John Muir (1915) chapter 7

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
- Travels in Alaska by John Muir, 1915, chapter 1, page 5.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
- John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, (1938), page 313.

Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.
- Muir's marginal note in volume I of Prose Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

smiileyjen101 wrote:I was kidding David
If you scan and you are "Great", "Marvelous", and "Fantastic" go with it!!

Some of that stuff though came out of the 'positive thinking movement, in the fake it til you make it category, which is where the tongue in cheek 'slap down' came from. It made me consider the question more sincerely maybe.
It's also interesting to gauge if the person asking is being sincere too - sometimes you can not answer, just smile, and they don't even notice. Funny ole world we live in.

'Scanning' I guess is an entry into presence.

Sometimes humor doesn't come across so well in txt form, much like how sarcasm is often difficult to convey in txt, as txt doesn't convey well the intonation and inflection of spoken language.

It is a funny old world Jen, a funny old world indeed.

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” ― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Cool quotes, although I can´t relate to it very much. I often have trouble with flowery imagery and writing.^^

Today, I´m thinking about my future.
In a week I will write my exams. Then I wil be a certified translator and start to establish myself as a freelancer. It scares me on some level because I have no idea how to get started. What kind of taxes do I have to pay? Where do I get customers? Which translation programme is the best? How does networking with other translators work? What kind of advertisment do I need? How do I create my own website? Are my translating skills really that good? And so forth.

If I think about all these questions I feel both afraid and extremely excited. What I know now is that life never asks too much of me and if I take one step at a time I will gradually get where I want to be. I developed a deep feeling of trust in the workings of the universe.
In the beginning it was hard for me, though, to choose this particular career path. Nobody in my immediate sorroundings works as a freelancer. Most of my family members and relatives have 9-5 jobs that they dislike and they never want to break out of their comfort zone. But I already tried out so much that I know for for sure that I want to have this kind of freedom that comes with this new occupation. I want to be my own boss.

The funny thing was, as soon as I chose to become a freelancer in my mind, the universe seemed to connive with me to attract people, situations and events that wil help me to get where I want. It could be a tip from somebody on how to save a lot of money in regards to translation software, facebook-groups of translators who have already established themselves in the business or simply sudden insights during meditation where I realized which fields would probably be the easiest for me to tackle.

It feels good to have the universe on your side, knowing that you are well taken care of and you just have to align yourself mentally with what you want and take the necessary practical steps when new opportunities arise for you.
I also realized that I don´t see new experiences as a either a success or failure anymore. No, these are just experiences from which I learn something new about myself and grow as a person. I learned that this universe works in contrast. So if I look back now and think of all my "failures" I realize that they were all necessary to figure out what I really want. All these schools and jobs that were sucking the life out of me only made it clear to me what my preferences are and what I definitely don´t want to experience again. They also held a mirror in front of my face and made it clear how out of alignment I was with my true self, how much compromises I made and how little care I took of myself.

In our society we put so much emphasis on winning and nobody wants to be the guy that failed at something. But that mentality makes us so scared of trying anything new or follow our creative impulses, that we don´t do anything or settle for less than we could actually achieve. Our fears cause so much resistance to our progress and we buy into these painful emotions again and again. But it´s time now to do something new, to do things that one wants to do no matter how they turn out. Yes, it means to not give a fuck about success and failure and rather follow your intution that will lead you to amazing and fulfilling experiences.

"Happiness / Something in my own place / I'm standing naked / Smiling, I feel no disgrace / With who I am/ I´m a lucky man...with fire in my hands"
(The Verve - Lucky Man)